It is time to get creative! The UCF Libraries is sponsoring a “Love your Libraries” sticker contest! UCF Students are invited to submit original design entries no larger than 4” x 3”. The contest closes on March 31st at 5PM.
The library will select one winning design that reflects the library to print and distribute during Finals Week (April 25 – May 2, 2023). A winner will be announced through library social media and digital signs in the library. The winner will receive 25 printed stickers and an LED light displaying their design!
Four of our UCF Librarians were recently honored with awards for their publications at this year’s Author’s Celebration held earlier this month in the Live Oak Room. The event recognizes faculty who have published books recently.
Among this year’s 47 honorees were the following librarians and their works:
The UCF Libraries is proud to announce that the 2021 Jean Key Gates Distinguished Alumni Award of the USF School of Information has been awarded to our own Ven Basco! This award is given in honor of USF Professor Emerita of the same name. The award is presented annually to an alumnus whose outstanding professional career achievements serve as a role model for all information science graduates.
Many of our knights have benefitted from Ven’s expertise in his role as the Engineering and Computer Science Librarian at UCF where he has been serving the UCF community for over two decades. Either via a one on one science consultation session with him, attending one of his library instruction sessions, utilizing one of his many online research guides, or just having access to the many books he has helped procure for our collection. Ven has held may many titles and responsibilities over the years. In addition to being a subject librarian, he also coordinates the library’s research consultation services and Ask a Librarian service, two of the services that the library provides that made a tremendous impact to the type of services that the library offered during the pandemic. His interest and many years of involvement with international aspects of libraries through ALA’s International Relations Committee, and ALA’s International Relations Roundtable committees made him aware of the various opportunities to meet and network with a lot of librarians here and in Asia. He was the past president and Executive Director of the: Asian Pacific American Librarians Association for seven years. He was also the 2019 recipient of the Excellence in Librarianship Award at UCF and the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) Distinguished Service Award.
Congratulations to Lee Dotson for being named an Institutional Repository All-Star during the Digital Commons North American Conference 2021! Ms. Dotson is the interim department head for Technology Solutions & Digital Initiatives and has been the Repository Manager for STARS since it launched in 2015.
UCF’s Lee Dotson was one of four 2021 IR All Stars!
Ms. Dotson was introduced by Benjamin Gaunt, Digital Commons customer service representative, who described her as “…perhaps the busiest and most effective IR manager I’ve worked with — her repository contains literally hundreds of collections and has receivedover 5 MILLION downloads to date. This all-star leads the University of Central Florida’s STARS repository with extraordinary vision and collaboration — her tight-knit team at the library is known for bringing diverse, innovative collections on board and working closely with us here in Consulting Services to meet each collection’s individualized needs. As a result, I believe she may be one of the most knowledgeable and cutting-edge users of Digital Commons to date.”
“Over 5 MILLION downloads from STARS to date!”
In accepting this award, Ms. Dotson recognized that STARS is truly a team effort made possible by the incredible efforts, encouragement, championing, and support from nearly every department in the UCF Libraries. From Scholarly Communication to Cataloging and Subject Librarians to Archivists, the success of STARS depends on an environment of cooperation and collaboration throughout the libraries and across the campuses. The day to day operations and rapid growth require creative, dedicated, and hard-working individuals. “I’m fortunate to work with amazing colleagues and that Page Curry and Kerri Bottorff rise to the challenge every day to support varied faculty, student, and community digital projects,” said Ms. Dotson.
UCF content creators, authors, and the community are the heart of STARS, UCF’s Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship, which exists to collect, share, and provide ready access to works by, for, and about the University of Central Florida. Explore the collections at stars.library.ucf.edu. For more information about how STARS can help you share your work with a worldwide audience, visit our STARS Digital Repository page or contact stars@ucf.edu
Lily Dubach started as a Student Assistant in the Acquisitions Department in 2014, then held part-time roles in other departments, including as Adjunct Librarian for the Office of Scholarly Communication before joining us full time as the Connect Librarian supporting the Valencia West Campus. She has a Bachelor of Science from UCF and a Master of Science in Information from Florida State University.
Lily officially becomes the new Textbook Affordability Librarian on May 8, 2021. In this role, she collaborates with teaching faculty, librarians, instructional designers, and pertinent campus units to promote and transition traditional course content to affordable textbook alternatives. These textbook alternatives include open educational resources (OER) and library-sourced materials. To date, UCF faculty have taught over 950 classes using open or library-sourced materials, in turn reaching over 65,000 students and potentially saving them just over $6.7M as of Spring 2021.
For more information about how Lily can help you reduce textbook costs, visit our Textbook Affordability page.
